Dubai to turn its waste into transport fuel
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- Category: Business
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02 Jul 2009
- Published on Thursday, 02 July 2009 08:35
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A Dubai municipality in the UAE will build a facility that can turn municipal waste into transport fuel.
A Dubai municipality in the UAE will build a facility that can turn municipal waste into transport fuel through a deal with an international consortium of green companies, The National reported last week (June 24). The consortium Earth Power Group announced that negotiations with Dubai are in the final stages and that the project will be operational in two years. The Center of Material and Process Synthesis of South Africa (COMPS), the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Alye International make up the consortium.
A $25-million to $30-million module that can take in 50 tons of municipal waste daily will be Dubai’s first investment, Alye International’s group chief executive, Virgil Perryman, told The National. About 2.7 barrels of synthetic fuel can be produced from every ton of waste.
Dubai will provide the land and supply of waste for the privately-funded project, added Perryman. Location has not yet been decided.
An integration of older technologies will be used by Earth Power for the project. The Fischer-Tropsch process, which converts synthesis gas into liquid hydrocarbons will be used.
Revenue will be coming from fees normally paid to landfills for collection, recycling fees, and sales of electricity, synthetic fuels, and other by-products. One by-product, a wood substitute that can be used for buildings, is expected to be in demand, Perryman told The National.
Synthetic fuels could reportedly be used to dilute petroleum-based fuels at first. Once cities are able to produce enough of the waste-based fuel, the switch to synthetic fuels can already be made.
Dubai has been studying waste-to-energy programs to solve its garbage disposal problems since last year. Waste disposal tripled in Dubai from 2000 to 2007, with the volume increasing from one million tons to 3.5 million tons. Industrial and construction waste reportedly increased to 10.5 million tons from 3 million tons.
Earth Power is negotiating with other municipalities in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, the US, and Spain to develop similar projects.
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Jen Balboa
Source:
1 http://www.thenational.ae/article/20090624/BUSINESS/706249968/0/test
